A hopefully reasonable, literate and charitable place for Catholic musicians and others involved in the Church's liturgical practices to exchange and share personal perspectives of liturgical philosophy, law, and performance. And the occasional left turn might pop up in the headlights.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Hey, She's at least not Solicitor General Kagan!

Short of ordaining HELEN MIRREN or FRANCESCA ANNIS as a prelate, the C of E could have done a lot worse on the PR front. Of course, I'm a sucker for women with nice smiles and glasses.

He reminded me of Fr. Solanus Casey. It seemed everytime I saw George Cooke he was entering the church side door as I was leaving from the prior Mass; memory says he, therefore, was always surrounded in light when we encountered each other. His smile would put those of the Cheshire Cat, Sarah Palin and Louie Armstrong in hiding.George, I've heard, left the Church for a significant period of his life. But when I met him years ago, he was back in her arms as a loving child. He eventually entered the Third Order Franciscans, and with some of his younger, much younger confreres founded a garage schola (Gregorian Schola of St. Francis) long before the movement really got moving. George always said he couldn't really sing, but he would don the cassock and surplice over his brown habit and lip sync or sotto voce the chants in earnest with his fellows. He could always be found at food giveaways with friends of our service organziations. And at our last seasonal concert (Christmastide) he read the translations of the 4th Sunday Advent, Christmas Day and Epiphany Introits before the schola guys chanted them masterfully.His passing was a surprise, though he'd been in ICU on a ventilator for a while, gradually being weaned from it and we all thought he'd walk with us for a while more. But God smiles, too. And smiled upon his good and faithful servant George at about 6:30pm last evening. A saint (in waiting?) God knows. In my heart, no doubt.God bless you, George, with eternal Light, Peace and Joy in His Presence. Now sing with a glorious voice.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

What Does This Image Mean to You?First Impression.....

Sweetly benign, set apart? Its wearer called beyond the banalities of the world? Its wearer sacramentally mandated to be both and at once the human presence of Christ's authority and His (and God's) "mandatum" to be a servant to God's disciples and faithful, putting at odds every man's longing for humility and his need to dominate? Is there a tension that necessary requires its wearer to lean towards God as an unyielding arbiter of total subserviance to unwavering principles and values of behavior, not to mention obedience and cowering love, and who demands such under penalty and promise of purely black and white eternal judgment?

Is there an unavoidable inclination in our post-modern world that while our BIG BROTHER accessibility to information about anything and anyone informs our regard for those who wear the "collar," that such men cannot integrate the spectrum of expections of their public and personal world-views without resorting to natural fall-back behaviors of denial, egotism, clericalism or denial, naivite and accomodation for its own sake, and such?

For myself, I am convicted that humanity needs the eternal surety of leadership that best represents both the God of justice and mercy. I am likewise convinced that humanity can no longer afford to be passive if that leadership transgresses or deifies either of those qualities via a personification of either that portrays the priests as a sole arbiter.

Simply stated, for none of us, lay or cleric, can it ever be "ALL ABOUT ME."

No, that is NOT "The Way." Look at this man's eyes! When he was ordained and endowed with the privilege and poverty of donning the collar, pride and power were removed by more than the number of dimensions of the universe, so that he could reflect both justice and mercy to all who knocked upon his door.

COLLOQUIUM 2013

Faure's REQUIEM

Thank you, Monsignor Wadsworth

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About Me

Charles Culbreth, parish music director, has been involved in Roman Catholic music ministry professionally since 1970. He and his wife Wendy have served the communities of the newly formed Catholic Church of Visalia (St. Mary's, Holy Family, St. Thomas parishes) since 1991. Prior to that he served as DM at the Cathedral of Sts. John the Baptist and Divine in Fresno, CA. Charles completed both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in the California State University system, his masters degree in Choral Music Conducting and Church Music. He retired as choral instructor at Redwood High School in Visalia and accepted the post of Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Mary's. Charles was a member of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians from 1979 to 2001 and a member and officer of the regional division of the American Choral Directors Association.
He joined the Church Music Association in 2007.
Charles received recognition from his beloved Holy Father Benedict XVI, the Benemerenti Award in May of 2011.